Racing: Skyweka to realise breeders' dream

Photo / TRISH DUNELL

How long can you hold on to a dream?

Quite a long time it seems, if Janine Wallace is to be believed. Along with her husband, Les, she bred the Tony Pike-trained Skyweka, who lines up in the Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie tomorrow.

"It's taken Les and I, 45 years to be an overnight success," she said. "For us it would be our first black type result. We've shared moments of great success through the family farm at Ardsley and we were there for 25 years, but this is a big deal for us."

Those "shared" moments while involved with the Wallace family's Ardsley Stud in Wairarapa range from the likes of Australian Cup winner Kip through to Auckland Cup winner Titch, bred and raced by Jim Wallace snr.

What delights Wallace about the race tomorrow is that she and Les will be sharing the experience of having a runner in a stakes race with a diverse group of people " the 38-strong Galloping Wekas syndicate.

There would also be a certain symmetry should Skyweka win the Rich Hill Mile as she is a daughter of Rich Hill Stud's flagship stallion Pentire.

"It was 2011 and we had sent our mare Blue Hope to Pentire. We were breeding in partnership with Stephen Goh, but he contacted us and said he no longer wished to breed from the mare," Janine said.

"Les had a terrible accident and we were wondering what we were doing to do, so we contacted John Thompson at Rich Hill and he was very understanding and enabled us to pay the service fee in installments."

Blue Hope and her resulting foal were domiciled at Haunui Farm in Karaka when the Wallaces first set eyes on the filly.

"We loved her, but we couldn't afford to race her on our own so we decided to gather a syndicate together," she said.

"She is our Galloping Weka legend and the social media/website volunteer," Joe Wallace said. "That information is what has made the experience for a lot of people."

As for the syndicate name, Joe said naming it after the famously feisty native bird came about thanks to a holiday spot in the Marlborough Sounds.

"My wife and I were staying in an isolated little spot with heaps of wekas sprinting around and full of character. There wasn't too much thought that went into it."

A second Galloping Wekas syndicate, this one comprising 58 members, has been organised to race Morweka, a 3-year-old filly by Showcasing out of Skyweka's half-sister Spera. A third syndicate is being put together to race Skyweka's 2-year-old half-sister by Showcasing.

"A 10 per cent share costs $300 a month," Wallace said. "We want everyone to get the joy out of racing. We have one group of five based in Hamilton who each have two per cent to make up their 10 per cent share.

"This is a tough industry and everyone gets pleasure out of everyone else's success because we know how hard we work and what it takes to get there.

- NZ Racing Desk